The link between customer and employee satisfaction
Numerous studies over many years have investigated the link between customer and employee satisfaction, the majority of which have revealed a strong correlation between customer and employee satisfaction and business profitability.
A recent Gallup survey of 55,000 employees matched the following with higher profits:
- Employees felt they were enabled and supported to do what they do best
- They believed their opinion counted within the business
- They sensed that their co-workers and the company were committed to quality
- They felt their respective roles were directly connected to the company’s mission statement
Whilst its true that remuneration, a fair days pay for a fair days work, is important, what often gets overlooked is the importance of employees feeling that they are adding value and aiding the company’s growth. In short, meaning is just as, if not more, important than money.
Many management experts agree that employee happiness is the single greatest driver of productivity; happy employees drive healthy profits.
So what then are some of the keys to achieving employee happiness?
- Understand their personal goals and assist them with a plan to achieve them
- Provide employees with all the resources they require to do the job they were employed to do
- Clearly communicate your expectations – employees are not mind readers
- Get out of their way – constant monitoring and micro management stifles productivity
- Trust and respect are vital
- Keep employees “in on things” – share as much information as you can
- Invite their ideas and suggestions on how to grow the company – management do not have a mortgage on great ideas
- Acknowledge wins – recognition and appreciation are key to staff happiness and retention
Happy productive employees deliver higher standards of customer service. Happy customers drive higher levels of business profitability. Customers win, employees win, management wins, shareholders win. It’s a four-way win!
A great customer experience and a great employee experience are mutually inclusive. It is impossible for one to happen without the other.
Taking care of your employees is the single most effective way of taking care of your customers.
